The present invention relates to vehicle wheel axle and brake mounting assemblies in general, and more particularly to an assembly of this type which is especially suited for mounting the axle of a steerable front wheel of a motor vehicle and the associated disc brake.
A great number of wheel axle mounting arrangements for use on motor vehicles is already known. With increasing popularity of front wheel drive, mounting arrangements for front wheel axles employing MacPherson struts are gaining in prominence. In such mounting arrangements, the MacPherson strut performs several functions: it serves as a support for a wheel axle and associated disc brake supporting arrangement, as a pivot about which the supporting arrangement turns during the steering of the respective wheel and, more often than not, as a shock absorber. To be able to perform these functions, the MacPherson strut must satisfy many requirements which are often contradictory to one another. Therefore, conventional mounting arrangements of this type are usually rather massive and, in most instances, constructed as integral units which must be replaced in their entirety, at a rather high expense, upon failure to perform any of the above functions, such as the shock-absorbing function. Moreover, since the mounting arrangements for the left and right wheels of the vehicle are not identical but rather are mirror images of one another, it was necessary to maintain a sufficient stock of both right-wheel and left-wheel mounting arrangements to meet any contingencies or demands. The resulting need for a substantial amount of additional storage space further contributes to the already high cost of such unitary mounting arrangements. A further drawback of the known mounting arrangements of this type is that they are designed to support complete disc brake units, which adds additional mass to the already considerable mass of the mounting arrangement itself. Also, the conventional unitary mounting arrangements are suitable for use only on the front wheels of the vehicle, and differently constructed mounting arrangements have to be used for supporting the rear wheels of the vehicle.
The disadvantages of the conventional mounting arrangements of the above type have already been recognized and attempts been made to overcome or at least alleviate at least some of the above-discussed problems. So, for instance, a mounting arrangement incorporated in the Fiat Panda passenger car utilizes a cup-shaped mounting member which is secured to the MacPherson strut at the lower end of the latter and which carries the bearing for the wheel axle. Then, an anchor or carrier member of a disc brake associated with the respective wheel is mounted on this cup-shaped mounting member. However, even this arrangement, as advantageous as it may be in some respects still is rather expensive and massive.